“It’s ninja time!” “Let’s see some kicks and hi-yas!” Words I never thought I would hear or say while teaching grade 3.

February 22-26 was kindness week at the elementary campus. A week where classes were invited to show random acts of kindness to others, participate in pink shirt day, and sneakily deliver decorated rocks like ninjas to their cohort class as a kindness gift.

And of course, knowing who I am, I had to go all out and accept this challenge in full force!

The Plan

It started out small: kindness read-alouds, discussions about how we can be kind to others, some colouring activities, putting a button in a jar when students do something kind, etc….

On Wednesday, I told the students about the ninja challenge.

As a way of showing kindness and making others feel loved, I told my class we were going to deliver decorated rocks to our cohort class, 3D, Mr. Koster’s class. Each student then decorated a rock with a kind message or pretty picture to give to a student in 3D. We even made one for Mr. Koster.

We then talked about ways to deliver these without 3D knowing, and of course we needed to be ninjas! We found out when 3D would be in the library on Thursday. We also thought it would be much more fun to do a scavenger hunt around their classroom for them to find the rocks rather than leaving them on their desks. Finally we thought they should get something sweet to enjoy as well, so we would leave a candy on their desks with a note that says, “You’re so sweet!”

The plan was set. But something was missing….

Fitting the Role

We didn’t look like ninjas and we didn’t know how to be ninjas! Now that had to be fixed….

So, we read about ninjas, we discussed what ninjas do (have a mission, are quiet, sneaky, do cool moves, etc…), and what ninjas wear (all black, and red headbands across their foreheads). Each of us made a red ninja headband and wrote or drew on them different ninja names, hearts, or kindness words to go with the kindness ninja theme.

I took a picture of every student in their headbands and with the help of my creative EA, Sonja Hiebert, we created a ninja collage of the student’s faces to put on 3D’s board.

We were almost ready.

It’s Ninja Time

It was Thursday—Ninja Day!

We arrived at school dressed in black and dark colours, wearing our ninja headbands. Before we carried out our plan, we recited the Kindness Ninja pledge:

I pledge to myself,
on this very day,
To try to be kind,
In every way.

To every person,
Big or small,
I will help them,
If they fall.

When I love myself,
And others, too.
That is the best,
That I can do.

For I am a Kindness Ninja,
That is true!
My mission is to spread LOVE,
To all of you!

We grabbed our rocks, the candy, and our notes. We were ready.

“IT’S NINJA TIME!”

We headed down the hall to Mr. Koster’s class, in ninja style! Rolls, spins, kicks, karate chops, stopping if someone came and leaning up against the wall, crawling on the floor—you name it we did it! Then we sneakily hid the rocks, quickly put the notes, and sweets on the desks before anyone could see us. And boy, were their hearts happy, both the givers and the receivers!

3D was RAK’d (random act of kindness’d) by the 3C Kindness Ninjas because kindness rocks!